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London: Scientists have uncovered what they believe to be the world’s oldest fossil forest dating back 390 million years in the high sandstone cliffs.
The fossilised trees are palm-like in appearance but would have had thin trunks with hollow centres, researchers say. The remains were discovered in the Hangman Sandstone Formation near Minehead, close to a Butlin’s holiday camp.
This fossil forest is around four million years older than the previous record holder found in a sandstone quarry in the town of Cairo in New York State. Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff said these ancient plants called Calamophyton would have been “prototypes” of modern-day trees.
They would also have been quite short, somewhere between two and four metres tall, with branches covered in hundreds of twig-like structures instead of leaves.
Professor Neil Davies, from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, said: “This was a pretty weird forest not like any forest you would see today.”
“There wasn’t any undergrowth to speak of and grass hadn’t yet appeared, but there were lots of twigs dropped by these densely packed trees, which had a big effect on the landscape.”
The forest belongs to a geological time period known as the Devonian Period, between 419 million and 358 million years ago. It was a time when marine animals started to diversify and seed-bearing plants first appeared.
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